Ok, I know that as far as the Dance goes, tonight's game was not exactly crucial. Aside from improving seeding, it was a game between two locks. I'm not bothered by the fact that the 'Cuse and the little fuzzy guy (aka gerry macnamara) won as much as I am by the fact that we seemingly squandered a 15 point lead. Given the outcome of the Pitt / Nova game, winning tonight would have basically meant GU would take the BE crown (I KNOW we would have beaten Pitt).
I didn't follow the 2nd half as close as the first, but at what point did GU decide to pack it in? I also don't understand JTIII not calling the TO with 9 seconds left. Going for the speedy attack was a nice thought, but under the circumstances, I don't understand not using the final TO in a one possession and very winnable game. I don't know that it changes the outcome, but given the turnover on the previous possession, to me this was a bonehead call.
2 comments:
Agreed Stallion. JTIII rarely slips up but there were some questionable 2nd half moves. Notable among them was sitting a very well rested Hibbert for the first 8-10 minutes of the second half (points aside, minute per minute this may have been Hibbert's most effective game of the season. We completely dictated the flow/tempo when he was on the court) when the lead went from 15 to 4 points, playing Jessie Sapp way too long--nice kid, but he was totally outclassed and outmatched by Syracuse's guards, and not calling a TO with 9.0 seconds. Our possession with 45-55 seconds left following a TO also killed us--not sure why we let the shotclock get so low before initiating the offense. Hope that call didn't come from the coach.
Mike is also right though--we hit our free throws down the stretch and we win. But this game never should have gotten to a point where a couple of free throws mattered.
Live and learn though.
I agre though--while it would have been nice to be BE tournament champ or get to the final, there's only one tournament that matters. This was like the semi-formal. Now we better get ready for the prom.
JTIII spoke about not calling the TO w/ 9 seconds. He said that they've worked on scoring in that situation and he didn't want to give Cuse a chance to set up the zone. We are not a good team on scoring quickly from the half-court. This was probably the right call. It has worked well in a number of other games. The problem was Ashanti traveled.
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